Ramadoss blames it on lack of grass roots coordination

By M.Balaganessin

CUDDALORE, NOV 3. The Paatali Makkal Katchi (PMK) founder, Dr. S. Ramadoss, today said his party would continue to remain in the NDA and that there was no change in the alliance strategy.

He was addressing presspersons at Thailapuram, near Pondicherry, where the general council analysed the outcome of the local bodies election.

To a question, Dr. Ramadoss said the result was a mixed bag, compared to the 1996 elections ``when we went alone''. In a few districts, the PMK fared better than in the previous elections, while in some others it lost the seats. ``But, there was a fall in the final tally this time''.

The PMK had annexed 302 posts of union councillorship, 31 of district panchayat councillorship, one municipal chairmanship and seven posts of town panchayat president. Further, a good number of village panchayat presidents won on PMK tickets.

Dr. Ramadoss attributed the defeat of the PMK candidates to a lack of coordination among grassroots workers. ``Workers lacked what we leaders had``, he said adding he would not make any ``further comment'' as he did not want to offend any section of the party.

Asked whether the party had embraced defeat because of a frequent shift in its alliance strategy, Dr.Ramadoss said the change had become a thing of the past. ``People did not have any aversion to our party at the time of the local bodies election'', he said.

The meeting adopted a resolution urging the Centre to obtain the concurrence of political parties before passing of the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance.

'Partymen failed to woo voters'

A cross-section of PMK cadres has held a section of the partymen responsible for the defeat of the party and its allies in the local bodies election.

A talk with a number of workers at Thailapuram today revealed that although the PMK had an alliance with the DMK, many PMK workers, failed to woo the voters. Some of them said the PMK cadres had even extended indirect support to AIADMK nominees.

One of the members pointed out that it was a tough job for the higher level cadres (in the rank of district secretaries) to consolidate, in the post-counting scenario, the support of independents. ``Independents had won a large number of seats, because contestants happened to be just relatives and not political rivals.''

Many cadres pointed out that the PMK workers had, in adapting themselves to the local environment, thrown the party's policy to the winds. This was a common phenomenon for almost all political parties. The results had showed that voters had rejected the caste factor altogether.

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Section  : Southern States
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